A day on Lawrence Farm

Two hours by car and we were in upstate New York, a heavenly farm... they've got everything one can wish for. Sonia stopped for lunch and made friends with a local pumpkin guy.

First we headed to pick the remnants of concord grapes.

Then we got some sweet peppers off the vine. Nearby I saw hot peppers, they reminded me of habaneros I have seen in my cook books. So asked Jeremy if they were habanero. "No way," he said. "These peppers can't be that hot. It is New York." So I picked one up and asked him to try it. Jeremy bit furiously into one. "Yeah, it is hot." Two seconds later he continued: "I ate some seeds and it is really hot." All the while he was making terrible faces. Then he stopped talking and kept gasping for air. I didn't know what to do... it looked like he was going to die for a while but he kept very quiet. Then he asked for Sonia's milk. Later we found out that those peppers were habaneros or the hottest peppers on the planet. Jeremy said "it burned my mouth, my throat and then my stomach but it is good for you, right"? I could only hope so.

On the steep hill farm goats and sheep roamed quite freely. They could climb up a tree house. I put some hard corn kernels in the can and tried lifted it up to the house. This goat really wanted it.

We fed some white swans at a lake and played with an old mastiff.

Apple picking was fun too. We got a big bag of Granny Smith, Wine Sap, Empire, and Golden Delicious.

We wandered onto a pumpkin patch and when Sonia saw it, she started jumping up and down and making "boo.." noises.

She ran around the field picking up pumpkins and throwing them down.

There was a cute little village with a church, school, stables, village cottage, ice-cream parlor, post office and fire department. Everything was made perfectly for children. Sonia loved the school with little tables for kids, chalk board and a desk for a teacher.

She climbed in a truck, rang a bell and went of a slide at the fire station.

Sonia loved the village and didn't want to leave. When she saw big pumpkins, she also tried picking them up.

Sonia found a hot pepper while I was feeding horses. She bit into it and then tried wiping her mouth off with the wipe. She was as courageous as her papa and didn't cry. We finished our day with apple cider made on the farm and more than a dozen delicious donuts (mini donuts says Jeremy).

We ended up with lots of grapes, sweet and hot peppers, three pumpkins, winter squashes, apples and fun memories.